CONCORD, N.C. – Up next, dirt racing.
For the one and only time this season, the NASCAR Cup Series will compete on the dirt of Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. The Easter Sunday race event will serve as the eighth points-paying event on the calendar for stock car racing’s premier division. Heat races on Saturday night will set the lineup for the main event.
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This is the third race held on the dirt covered .533-mile track in Thunder Valley. Despite the unique surface, Hendrick Motorsports has earned five top-10 results on the track with Kyle Larson earning the best finish (fourth) of the group in 2022. The overall number of top-10 results leads all other teams in the Cup Series.
When the inaugural Bristol dirt race was announced for the 2021 season, drivers with experience in dirt racing were immediately labeled as the favorites to take the checkered flag. However, with the massive differences between Cup Series cars and others forms of dirt racing, drivers with dirt backgrounds have yet to find victory lane in this race. Will Larson or Alex Bowman be able to change this narrative, or will William Byron or Josh Berry’s asphalt experience come into play?
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Larson rolls into Tennessee as the most recent winner in the series thanks to his victory at Richmond Raceway. Larson's has had a wide variety of success on dirt with two wins at the Chili Bowl Nationals as well as numerous World of Outlaws wins and victories at the Knoxville Nationals and Kings Royal. He also won the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Eldora Speedway in 2016. The 30-year-old driver led laps in last year’s Bristol event and won the opening stage on his way to a top-five finish. He also earned a victory on Bristol’s concrete layout in 2021.
Another driver with dirt racing experience in the Hendrick Motorsports stable is Bowman. The driver of the No. 48 regularly competes with his own team, Alex Bowman Racing, in various events on sprint car and midget events on dirt throughout the country. The Tucson, Arizona, native finished sixth in the 2022 Bristol dirt race. Marked by consistency and a series-best 7.14 average finish, the No. 48 Ally Racing team will look to build on its start to 2023 with another solid run in Tennessee.
Berry will continue to fill in for Chase Elliott as he recovers from a successful surgery on a fractured tibia suffered from a snowboarding accident. The 32-year-old-driver comes from a background of racing Late Model Stock cars throughout the Southern United States, but he did make a start on dirt in the Truck Series at Knoxville Raceway in 2021. He won a heat race at Knoxville and finished in the top 10 in the opening two stages before a late-race incident sent him to a 28th-place finish. The Hendersonville, Tennessee, native will be in his home state and carries momentum from a career-best finish of second at Richmond.
Dirt racing is not something that William Byron does regularly. Growing up, the driver of the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 progressed through the ranks of Super Late Model racing to get to where he is now. However, in his first trip to Bristol’s dirt track, it was the Charlotte, North Carolina, native that carried the torch for Hendrick Motorsports as he earned a sixth-place finish. He also made one Truck Series start at Eldora in 2016, where he finished 14th. In addition to his Cup Series activities, he will drive the No. 51 HendrickCars.com Chevy for Kyle Busch Motorsports in Saturday night's Truck Series race. This will be the first of three events with KBM this season. Byron, too, enters Bristol with an excellent run of form. Through seven Cup Series races, he has earned five stage victories (the most all time at this point in a season), his 385 laps led are the most in the series and he is the only multi-time winner this season (two).
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Here’s what you need to know to catch this weekend’s action.
WHAT TIME IS PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING?
All on-track activity for Friday, April 7, was rained out.
Heat races will take place on Saturday, April 8, beginning at 6 p.m. ET. Coverage for all four 15-lap qualifying races will be available on FS2. Bowman (starting second) and Berry (starting seventh) will be in the first race. Byron (starting fifth) will be in the second heat race. Larson (starting sixth) will be in the third heat race.
WHAT TIME IS THE RACE?
The 250-lap Cup Series main event is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 9, and will be broadcast on FOX.
CAN I LISTEN ON THE RADIO?
Cup Series broadcast will be on PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).
CAN I STREAM ONLINE?
Yes. Download the FOX Sports Live app for online coverage. Fans can also keep up with the action on Twitter by following @TeamHendrick.
WHAT CHANNEL IS FS1 AND FS2?
It varies by location, but this link allows viewers to find the channels by entering their zip code and selecting their television provider.
FIVE FAST FACTS HEADING INTO BRISTOL DIRT
Data provided by Racing Insights
6: Stage wins from Hendrick Motorsports in 2023. The amount is double that of the next best team in the Cup Series.
9: Through 14 stages this season, Bowman has earned stage points nine times. He has earned the third-most stage points in 2023 (54).
14: Wins since the start of 2021 for Larson. Next on the list is Chase Elliott, who is seven victories behind the driver of the No. 5.
26: With his runner-up finish in Richmond, Berry became the 26th driver to record a top-five finish with Hendrick Motorsports.
2,000: Byron has led 1,990 laps in his Cup Series career. The 25-year-old driver looks to break into the club of 2,000 laps led on Sunday at Bristol.